The best of South Africa’s track cyclists will be competing in the 2014 South African Omnium Championships as well as the Lights by Linea President’s Cup (interprovincial) and Western Cape Grand Prix meetings during the weekend of 22‐24 August at the Bellville Velodrome, Western Cape.
The new SA Omnium champion will be decided after participation in various events held on Friday from 09:00 to 18:00 and Saturday from 09:00 to 15:00. All the riders who represented SA at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will be competing for this title and spectators will be able to watch Nolan Hoffman, silver medallist at the World Championships last year and holder of numerous SA titles, in action against fellow national riders like Kellan Gouveris, Theuns van der Bank, Morne van Niekerk, Evan Carstens and Oupa Maluleke. Other talented riders will definitely have their sights on this title as well to show that they too deserve a call‐up to the national squad.
Lights by Linea will be sponsoring the interprovincial meeting on Sunday 24 August 2014 from 09:00 to 12:00 and the Western Cape Grand Prix, which will follow until 18:00. There is no better competition than when teams from WP, Boland/SWD, Eastern Cape, Kwazulu‐Natal, Gauteng and Free State go up against one another to be crowned the top province in track cycling. Some of the best professional teams, like Abantu (KZN), Bonitas (Gauteng) and Giant (Boland), will be representing their respective provinces and taking part in the Omnium Championships as well.
Interprovincial meetings make for extremely exciting riding as riders always go all out to prove where the strength of track cycling in South Africa resides. Spectators will also be entertained by the cream of the crop in track sprinting, and with WP known as SA’s sprinting hub, locals should not be disappointed. WP will be fielding the SA elite team sprint team of Jean Smith, Kyle Borches and Matthew de Freitas while the SA junior champion Eugene Soule (who will competing in the coming World Youth Track Cycling Championships) will be among the talented youngsters who will be strutting their stuff. Multiple women’s track champion Maroesjka Matthee will be sure to make a statement that she should also have been selected to compete in Glasgow.
At the interprovincial meeting, teams consisting of men and women will be competing in the team sprint, team pursuit as well as the extremely exciting 1 500 m and devil takes the hindmost (in which the last rider over the line falls out with the last two riders sprinting for the title). This will be the first of three interprovincial meetings to decide the home of the much‐sought after President’s Cup. The veterans will also be taking part in the first interprovincial specifically for veterans.
The riders will be sure to save their best for last for the Grand Prix meeting on Sunday afternoon when they will be riding for individual glory in the match sprint, keirin, points and scratch races. Since WP boasts many current and former national champions, local spectators can be sure of great excitement and entertainment when the rest of the country flocks down to the Cape to take them on in the only Velodrome on the continent of Africa!
Source: http://www.cyclingsa.com/Article.aspx?uid=2835